DRINKING WATER

GettyImages-2176083692 hurricane Building Resilient Water Treatment: How Ozone Systems Help Utilities Prepare for Extreme Weather

Ozone systems build resilience into water treatment. They ensure utilities remain chemically self-sufficient, allow fast recovery from power outages, and handle rapid water quality shifts.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

The Aztec 600 Phosphate Analyzer AW636 has been designed specifically for the measurement of phosphate in both potable water and municipal wastewater effluents. It offers reliable and accurate on-line analysis of phosphate up to 50 ppm PO4.

Welcome to our award-winning MDM software, Harmony Encore. We took our best-in-class Harmony MDM software and completely reenvisioned every aspect including its design, interoperability, user experience (UX), and speed to bring North American utilities an entirely new solution experience that solves today’s most pressing utility challenges and those of tomorrow.

At De Nora, we are strongly committed to providing aftersales and service support for our entire equipmen portfolio and similar competitive equipment.

CHEM-FEED® Engineered Skid Systems were designed and engineered using solid modeling tools for superior piping installation and easy component maintenance. Custom-engineered universal mounting blocks provide for easy component servicing and replacement.

Recordall® Fire Series Meters (FMSA) provide revenue-generating flexibility and control when you need to measure high-volume usage, such as when sprinklers are activated through a single supply line or for other applications, including industrial, multi-residential and commercial.

FLEX-TEND Flexible Expansion Joints are designed to protect water or wastewater pipeline systems from the stresses produced by ground motion or shear either from seismic activity or gradual soil subsidence.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

Dr. Jamie Dewitt explains her research in Phamacology and Toxicology and why water pollution might pose a problem no matter where you are.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy speaks at the 40th Anniversary of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) on December 9, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

In Raleigh, N.C., there's a house... or what looks like a house. What's hidden inside is more important than most people realize.

The TROLL® 9500 Water Quality Instrument simplifies multiparameter monitoring. The TROLL 9500 is a powerful, portable unit that houses up to nine water quality sensors, internal power, and optional data logging capabilities.

O’Brien, Texas is just one of thousands of small communities in the United States that struggle to find the resources to ensure that the water coming out of the tap is safe to drink. The recent budget proposal by the Trump administration will only make matters worse. Watch this documentary short produced by Tom Rosenberg and Earth Institute fellow Madison Condon details one shrinking town’s drinking water crisis.

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.